Richard Wood will be at Raymond James Stadium Sunday to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Oakland Raiders, but his eyes will also be on the scoreboard a lot, checking the score of one game in particular.
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| Things have been more than tough for rookie Kevin Smith and the Detroit Lions. (AP) |
"I don't want them to feel what we felt," Wood said.
What he and his teammates on the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers felt was the pain of living through a winless season.
That's 0-14, folks.
The Lions are 0-15 and head to Green Bay on Sunday to play the Packers with a chance to finish 0-16. No team has ever done that.
You would think the players from 1976 Bucs would want it to happen, bringing somebody down with them.
Misery loves company, right?
"No, no, no," Wood said. "I don't want anybody to go through what we went through."
The 1972 Miami Dolphins pop champagne every year when the last of the undefeated teams falls, leaving that group owning the only perfect season since the AFL-NFL merger. But there will be none of that for the 1976 Bucs. Wood said it just wouldn't be right.
"We won't do that," Wood said. "After going through an entire season not feeling the joy of winning, how could we toast that?"
That Tampa Bay team went on to lose the first 12 games of the 1977 season. That's 26 in a row.
The Lions can't top that, can they?
JDW126 
